Anna was thinking hard on Friday afternoon as she sat under a rowan tree waiting for David. She had woken that morning having had that same dream again, but this time the whole wrongness of it had seemed even more obvious. Her attacker had really misplayed his hand by stopping her talking about it, it just made it obvious. Someone was trying to control her and being controlled was something that she would not tolerate.

Since it was obvious that her would be controller was a vampire she had doubled up on the anti-mind control exercises that morning. They had helped a little but she could still feel the other inside her mind. It was a horrible sensation. And to evade his suggestions she was having to examine every single thought and feeling for contamination. It was exhausting but that was a small price to pay for thinking for herself. She would win, she was determined of that.

She looked up and saw David walking towards her and waved. He looked startled at that. Given the way she had started most of their previous meetings in a really foul mood that she now knew wasn’t entirely her own she didn’t blame him.

As he walked across the grass towards her her she pulled a twig off a tree and began to play with it. She thought that if she really forced herself she had be able to tell him about what was happening to her, but she needed to decide if she could trust him with her fears. She wanted to, she needed allies, but what if he felt compelled to inform the council? They’d surely bow to that Rhiane woman’s will and kill for this.

David in the meantime had reached her and sat down beside her, as he pulled out her notebooks. Their eyes met and Anna knew she had to take the risk.

“Hi, Anna. You seem in a better,” he paused and frowned. “Not not a better mood. You’re still not happy, are you? But you seem much less – um – hostile.”

Anna raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t realised he was that perceptive, no wonder he was suspicious of her. Perhaps she should- She slammed down on that thought when she recognised where it was going and gave him a strained smile. “Hi, David. I have serious problem.”

“Oh?” he said. “That sounds bad. If it wasn’t you would have asked about your suspects first.”

“I…” Anna began. The words wouldn’t come out again. She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and somehow wrenched free of the constraints for a moment. “I think someone has been messing with my mind for the past few days,” she blurted out in a rush while she was able to speak.

David glanced around, no doubt checking for observers. “And by someone you mean a vampire?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded unhappily.

“Are you doing your exercises every day?”

“Of course I am. I even did double this morning. They did help a little. I think that’s the only reason I could tell you about it.” She rubbed at her temples. “This is really hard. He is trying to make me shut up.”

“This is definitely not good,” David said. “So what is he doing to you? Can you tell me?”

“I think so.” She closed her eyes and struggled free again. “Well, I am having a lot of trouble telling my own thoughts from his implanted ones at times,” she admitted. “And he is stirring up my temper. I’ve got enough anger of my own at the moment without him stoking the fires. I’ve been on edge and jumpy for the last few weeks even before this started.” She sighed heavily. “In retrospect I think my mental state is why I jumped the gun on the other guy. I needed to… I don’t know… kill something. And vampires deserve killing.” She buried her head in her hands. “God, that makes me sound like some sort of psycho freak. I am not really. It’s just recently. I don’t know why.”

“Hmm… are you sure that this anger and jumpiness is your own? That this vampire has only been interfering in your mind for the last few days?”

“Yes, I am absolutely sure. He is been twisting my anger to his own ends or trying to, but it starts with me. It’s like having constant PMS, you know… well no, you wouldn’t know, would you? But take my word for it.” She could feel the vampire’s awareness of their conversation and his rising anger at it but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to go on. “I-I think that he wants to turn me into a vampire. I’ve been having this dream…” she trailed off as mention of the dream brought the whole thing sharply into her mind’s eye and she shuddered violently at how attractive she found him. That was his doing, of course. He was nothing like her usual physical type – far too blonde. As she watched the dream unfurl in her mind’s eyes she gritted her teeth and forced herself to think things like horrible and ugly about him. She was vaguely aware that David was staring at her but she was too caught up in the inner battle to explain herself to him. She twisted the little rowan twig violently as she continued to force her mind away from the lines he wanted it to take. Inside her mind she felt a roar of anger and then something seemed to explode inside her head. Apparently he had left some sort of booby trap behind in case she did try and fight him. It felt like she was trapped in some sort of malestrom which was dragging her down into a pit of darkness. Vaguely she knew that David had taken her hands and was urging her to keep fighting. She thought that she might have managed to whisper ‘help me’ and then he was in her mind with her.